


Stirring the Pot: I

by Daegaer



Series: Stirring the Pot [1]
Category: Jewish Scripture & Legend, תלמוד | Talmud
Genre: Amoraim, Babylonia, Collection: Purimgifts Day 1, Diaspora, F/M, Gen, Magic, Rabbis, Talmud
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-26
Updated: 2020-02-26
Packaged: 2021-02-28 05:34:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 511
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22908655
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Daegaer/pseuds/Daegaer
Summary: Rav Nachman knows he is the best of all possible men. Yalta, his wife, knows their daughters are the best of all possible daughters.
Series: Stirring the Pot [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1674706
Comments: 2
Kudos: 14
Collections: Purimgifts 2020





	Stirring the Pot: I

**Author's Note:**

  * For [cantarina](https://archiveofourown.org/users/cantarina/gifts).



Rav Nachman bar Yaakov knew well his own worth from the days of his youth, and when the time came for him to marry he would have no wife but the daughter of a man as great – as he said – as himself. His father interceded with the house of the Exilarch, for his son's humility was well-known to all, and he thought it unfitting for a man to put himself forward like a beggar with no family. In due time he and the Exilarch's daughter Yalta were wed, and all the People of Israel in Babylonia rejoiced at the match.

The dowry his wife brought him allowed Rav Nachman to live in comfort in Nehardea and devote all his time and energy to learning. His fame increased throughout the lands just as his knowledge of the Law increased in the House of Study, whilst her knowledge allowed her to keep the household running smoothly and calmly, so that her husband might study in peace. When in time she mentioned that perhaps not quite so many of the silver coins she had brought need be spent on the lavish entertainment of foreign scholars, Rav Nachman laughed at the foolishness of women who could not understand the needs of travellers. They had plenty, their children lacked for nothing, and if one day they should lack, well, no one would see _his_ sons starve. His wife looked on the faces of their daughters and said no more, for though her husband spoke to her more pleasantly than when they were first wed, he had also often spoken of the conceits of women, who thought they knew better than their husbands. And when Rabbi Isaac of Palestine came to visit she said nothing of how Rav Nachman showered him with the hospitality of her dowry.

"Bless me, Isaac," Rav Nachman said, when his guest prepared at last to leave.

"Are you not like a fine tree that shades the traveller, and feeds him with its good fruit?" Rabbi Isaac said. "What should such a traveller say to the tree but: How can I bless you? If I say that your fruit should be sweet, they are already sweet; that your shade should be pleasant, it is already pleasant; that the aqueduct should pass below you, it already passes below you. Rather, may all the saplings which are planted for you be like you."

With such kind words they parted, and Rav Nachman recounted the blessing to his wife, saying that their life was perfect and their sons should become like him in every respect. He blessed her as the mother of fine sons and a credit to her husband. When he had gone back to his books and his students, she took her daughters in her arms and looked in their faces, thinking of how their father seemed rarely to recall their names.

"My daughters," she said. "It is time that you learned of the wisdom of women. We do not need ink and books. People will soon know of your worth also."  


Nehardea

[source](https://gramho.com/media/2001057121571020080)

**Author's Note:**

> Rav Nachman of Nehardea was a famous and extremely skilled scholar who lived in Nehardea in Babylonia in the early 4th century CE. He was not exactly lacking in self-esteem, considering other rabbis who disagreed with his legal scholarship to be children, and saying, modestly, things like _If some one now living were to become the Messiah, he must resemble me._   
>  The wording of Isaac's blessing on Nachman is taken from the Talmud Babli.   
> 


End file.
